Éponine Thénardier
Éponine Thénardier is a character in the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. She is the eldest daughter and first-born child of Monsieur and Madame Thénardier. Novel Éponine and her younger sister Azelma are first introduced as toddlers in Montfermeil, France in 1818. Their parents Monsieur and Madame Thénardier run their own business as innkeepers. When Éponine and Azelma first meet Cosette, also a toddler, the three of them play together. After taking in Cosette, the Thénardiers abuse her, make her wear rags and force her to work for the inn. At the same time, Éponine and Azelma are spoiled by their parents. The two sisters wear pretty dresses, own many toys, and amuse themselves all day by playing. Following their parents’ example, Éponine and Azelma also mistreat Cosette and at times ignore her. In 1823, on Christmas Eve, Éponine and Azelma are in awe over a very pretty and expensive doll in a Chrstmas fair. Cosette also discreetly looked at it. Later that night, Éponine and Azelma are playing with their own doll together, but then abandon it to play with a kitten instead. Cosette picks up the doll and attempts to play with it. Éponine and Azelma suddenly see Cosette with their doll and tell on her to their mother. After Jean Valjean sees this, he briefly leaves the inn, comes back, and gives Cosette the doll from the fair, as he has left to buy it for her. This results in the two sisters to express jealousy towards Cosette for the first time. Throughout the next eight years, the Thénardiers' inn goes bankrupt, and the family move to Paris. They become completely impoverished, and live in a dirty, run-down apartment at Gorbeau House. They also live under the surname "Jondrette." Éponine, now an adolescent, has become ragged, haggard and prematurely aged due to living in poverty and has a hoarse voice due to drinking. Thénardier uses her and Azelma to help him racketeer. Éponine falls blindly in love with her neighbor Marius, who lives next door to her and her family in the same apartment building. She first meets him at his apartment to give him a begging letter from her father. To impress him, she proves her literacy by reading aloud from a book and writing a sentence, "Les cognes sont là" ("The police are here." "Cognes" is argot slang for "police"). She then opens up to Marius about her life and her hardships. He feels pity for her and gives her five francs, and she thanks him in argot. Éponine then leaves to visit a nearby church to ask a philanthropist and his daughter to make a charitable visit to her family. They turn out to be Valjean and Cosette. When they visit the Thénardier family, Marius recognizes Cosette. After Valjean and Cosette leave, Marius asks Éponine to find Cosette's address. Discovering that he is only in love with Cosette, she is unhappy with his request, but agrees to help him find her for him after making him promise to give her anything she wants as payment. Later that day, Valjean comes back to the apartment alone with rent money. He is ambushed by Thénardier and a gang called the Patron-Minette, and they attempt to rob him. Éponine and Azelma participate in the crime by keeping watch outside for the police. When the men decide to kill Valjean, Marius stops them by throwing Éponine's literacy note through the wall. Thénardier reads it and thinks Éponine threw it inside as a warning. Thénardier, Madame Thénardier and the gang try to escape, but are stopped and arrested by Javert. Éponine and Azelma are also arrested, but both are released after two weeks. After Éponine is released, Babet assigns her to inspect a house. Discovering that it is Valjean and Cosette's house, she informs him the house has no worth. Éponine does not find Marius for six weeks. With the assistance of Mabeuf, she finds Marius in a park called "The Field of the Lark." With some reluctance, she tells him she found Cosette's address. Marius makes Éponine swear not to let her father know the address, and after some persuasion, she promises. She then tells Marius that she wants her payment, and he puts a five-franc coin in her hand. She opens her fingers and lets it fall to the ground, and tells him it is not money she wants. After she shows Marius the house, he watches it for a few days. Marius soon meets Cosette in the gardens of the house and the two profess their love to each other. They meet with each other there throughout the past few weeks. One night, during one of Marius' visits with Cosette, Éponine is sitting on the ground by the gates of the house. She suddenly sees her father, Patron-Minette and Brujon attempt to break into the house. Knowing Marius is inside, Éponine prevents the men from doing so by threatening to scream, alert the police and wake up the whole area. Hearing this, the men leave. The next day, Éponine disguises herself as a boy. She finds Valjean and anonymously throws a note to him to move away. She also intercepts Cosette's letter to Marius so that Marius does not receive it (the letter includes Cosette's new temporary address and when Cosette and Valjean will leave France). The next day is the first day of the student uprising. Éponine, still in her disguise, hears about the barricades from Courfeyrac, and she comes up with a fatal idea: she and Marius will die there. She follows Courfeyrac to the barricades to learn its location, and then goes to Valjean and Cosette's house and waits. Marius arrives and discovers the house deserted. Staying hidden, Éponine lies to Marius by telling him that his friends are expecting him at the barricades. Devastated that Cosette is gone, and thinking she left the country, Marius goes, while Éponine goes back there as well. Later that evening at the barricades, Éponine sees a soldier about to shoot Marius. Wanting to die before Marius, she steps between him and the soldier and puts her hand on the musket barrel, taking the fatal shot herself. After this, she calls out for Marius and tells him she is dying. She asks him to lay her on his knees, and he does so. She then confesses to Marius her role in sending him to the barricades, and why she took the shot for him. She also decides to give him Cosette's letter, concerned that if she did not, he would hold the letter against her in the afterlife. Her final request to Marius is that after she dies, he kiss her forehead. With her last breath, Éponine confesses to Marius that she might have been "a little in love" with him before dying. Marius kisses her forehead, as he sympathizes with her for her hard life. Musical Éponine is one of the musical's most beloved characters. In most productions of this adaptation, she is made to have a more romanticized, sympathetic, likeable and relatable presentation of her character and she is not as manipulative. In the novel, most of her beauty has been lost and she has a hoarse voice. In the musical, she is traditionally pretty and her voice is not hoarse, but she is still presented as ragged and poverty-stricken. She and Marius are also portrayed as friends. Her child self remains unchanged, but does not sing or speak onstage. Songs Act I * Castle on a Cloud (Young Éponine, silent) * Look Down * The Robbery/Javert's Intervention * Éponine's Errand * Do You Hear the People Sing? (silent) * In My Life * A Heart Full of Love * The Attack on Rue Plumet * One Day More Act II * Building the Barricade (Upon These Stones) * On My Own * A Little Fall of Rain * Night of Anguish (silent) * Valjean's Death * Finale List of Portrayers Musical Child * Original French Concept Album (mentioned only) * Original Paris stage cast (3 actresses, names unknown) * Danielle Akers, Gillian Brander, Juliette Caton – Original London cast * Chrissie McDonald – Original Broadway cast * Heather Brown, Niki Holt, Ilana Miller – Original Canadian cast (also played Young Cosette) * Anne-Laure Grondin, Nora Kati, Lynda Zaoui – 1991 Paris revival * Tess Adams, Kylie Liya Goldstein, Carly Rose Sonenclar – 2006 Broadway revival (also played Young Cosette) * Chloe Panayi – 25th Anniversary Concert at the O2 * Erin Cearlock, Abbey Rose Gould – Current on the 25th Anniversary US Tour (also play Young Cosette) * Madeleine Haynes, Ella Owens, Georgia Pemberton – Current in London * Julia Wegrowicz – 2010-2011 Roma Theater in Warsaw Adolescent * Marie – Original French Concept Album * Marianne Mille – Original Paris stage cast * Frances Ruffelle – Original London cast, Original Broadway cast * Loretta Bailey – Original Canadian cast * Stéphanie Martin – 1991 Paris revival * Vera Mann – 1991 Dutch cast * Lea Salonga – 1993 Broadway cast replacement, 1995-1996 London Cast, 10th Anniversary concert * Sutton Foster – Broadway Theatre, Imperial Theatre, 3rd National Tour * Celia Keenan-Bolger – 2006 Broadway revival * Lucy Scherer – 2007 Swiss Production at the Theater St. Gallen * Lea Michele – 2008 Hollywood Bowl * Céline Purcell – 2008-2009 Dutch revival * Nancy Sullivan – 2008-2010 West End Production * Ashley Spencer – 2009 Pittsburgh CLO Production * Samantha Barks – 2010 West End Production, 25th Anniversary Concert at the O2 * Chasten Harmon – 2011 25th Anniversary US Tour (Original) * Brianna Carlson-Goodman – 25th Anniversary US Tour (Current; original Éponine u/s) * Rosalind James – 25th Anniversary UK Tour * Danielle Hope – Current in London * Ewa Lachowicz – 2010-2011 Roma Theater in Warsaw Movies Child * Gilberte Savary – 1934 films (uncredited) * 1958 film (uncredited) * 1972 mini-series (uncredited) * Rocío Brambila – 1973 series * Agathe Ladner – 1982 film/1985 mini-series * Sylvie Koblizkova – 1998 film (Note: Éponine only appears as a child in this film) * Julia Portoghese – 2000 mini-series * Natalya Angel Wallace – 2012 film Adolescent * Mistinguett – 1913 films * Dorothy Bernard – 1917 film * Suzanne Nivette – 1925 film (credited as Nivette Saillard) * Orane Demazis – 1934 films * Frances Drake – 1935 film (Note: Appearance and history is different from the novel) * Delia Orman – 1948 film * Silvia Monfort – 1958 film * Angela Cardile – 1964 mini-series * Elizabeth Counsell – 1967 mini-series * Hermine Karagheuz – 1972 mini-series * María Rojo – 1973 series * Candice Patou – 1982 film/1985 mini-series * Asia Argento – 2000 mini-series * Samantha Barks – 2012 film Trivia * In the musical, Éponine was one of the spirits (the other being Fantine) who greeted Valjean during his death. In the 2012 film, she is replaced by Monsieur Myriel. * Samantha Barks portrays Éponine in the 25th anniversary concert and in the 2012 feature film. * Éponine was portrayed in the 10th anniversary concert by Lea Salonga, who later would portray Fantine in the 25th anniversary concert. External Links * Éponine's Wikipedia page Gallery Musical Eponine01.jpg|Samantha Barks in the West End Production. celiaEponine.jpg|Celia Keenan-Bolger as Éponine in the 2006 Broadway Revival. CelineLesMis.jpg|Celine Purcell as Éponine in the Dutch Production. LesMisDanielle.jpg|Danielle Hope in the West End Production. Rosalind.jpg|Rosalind James in the UK Tour. αρχείο λήψης (2).jpg|Lea Salonga in the 10th Anniversary Concert. Film Eponine 1.jpg|Samantha Barks as Éponine in the 2012 film. imagesCA0VUKGB.jpg letter Eponine.jpg|Eponine reading Cosette's letter to Marius eponine.jpeg Unknown.jpeg tumblr_mh4khqsdwd1ro6c6oo1_1280.png A little fall of rain.png imagesCAUE1MK2.jpg alittlefallofraineponine.jpeg eponinethenardierpic.jpeg Thenardier and Eponine.jpg|Eponine being threatened by her father Category:Characters Category:Characters in the musical Category:Characters who passed away Category:Members of the Thenardier family Category:Members of the Patron-Minette